Knife



March 28, 1950 A. E. ALLEN ,50 0

KNIFE Filed Aug. 12, 1948 Patented Mar. 28, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE KNIFE Albert Edward Allen, Utica, N. Y. 7

Application August .12, 1948, Serial No. 43,915

This invention relates to pocket knives and the like.

There has long existed a demand fora high quality pocket knife which any boy could buy from his earnings or pocket money; a knife which. would cost only afraction of what the standard pocket knives cost and yet which sacrifice nothing in quality so far as the uses made by a small boy are concerned. It is an object of the invention to meet this need. A related but broader objective is to simplify the structure of a folding knife. It is also an objective, broadly, to effect economies in manufacturing and reduce the cost of such knives. Another object is to provide a knife of rugged structure which will be long-lived and durable in use and abuse.

2 Claims. (Cl. 30-155) Another object is to provide a knife with fewer parts, easier to assemble.

Pocket knives as made at the time of this invention had ordinarily consisted of brass liner plates at each side, ornamental handle plates of 5 horn, pearl or ornamental plastic secured to the liner over the central area thereof, bolsters or tips secured to the liners at each end fitted against the handle plates, springs at the back with rivets to hold them in place between the liners, and in the case of jacknives, spacers to hold the liner plates apart and suitably spaced from the blade, and, of course the blade or blades and rivets to secure the parts together and pro-- vide pivots for the blades. In most cases the back of the knife is left bare with the springs and the edges of the liner exposed, and in other cases the back is covered by the ornamental handle in which case the assembly of these many parts is further complicated. When the back is bare, the

The invention stems from the discovery that.

the usual complicated means for holding the spring in place and the fastenings for holding the parts together can be eliminated without loss of function. In accordance with the present invention a one-piece handle structure is provided with a blade receiving slot, and a knife-sprin is seated in the bottom of the slot without fastening it against free longitudinal movement,. and the shaping of the springs is designed to give them.

freedom for required flexing toward and away from the blades and for so engagin the blades (and a recess in the handle if the respective slots are provided withblades at only one end thereof) as to hold the springs longitudinally in their re quired operative relation to the blades.

Among the features which may be used with advantage according to the present invention as illustrated herein, are the provision of transverse grooves near the ends of the molded handle to simulate bolsters, the provision of metallic bolsters on a molded plastic handle; the special type of bolster; the provision of an integral abutment to hold down one end of the knife spring; and the provision of a two bladed knife wherein each blade holds down one end of the knife spring;

anchoring abutments to hold the spring against longitudinal movement when the blade is assembled in the knife.

For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the invention, reference should be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which;

Figure 1 is an isometric view of one form of knife embodying the invention;

Figure 2 is a similar View with a portion of the front side cut away and with the blade in partially opened position;

' Figure 3 is a similar cut-away view showing the blade in fully opened position;

Figure 4 is a similar View with a lesser portion cut-away showing the handle and spring ready to have the blade secured in position;

Figure 5 is an expanded View showing a modified form of construction;

Figure 6 is a view similar to Figure 2 showin a two-blade construction; and

Figure 7 is a view similar to Figure 2 showing another type of two-blade construction.

In the form of construction shown in Figure -1, the body portion of the knife, consists of a unitary integral handle Ill in which there is formed a slot l I having a bottom portion l2, side portions I 3 and M, and an end portion [5, the other end it being open. This handle is advantageously molded of a tough plastic, examples of which are cellulose acetate, nylon plastics, vinyl chloridee vinyl acetate plastics, etc., suitably compounded with plasticizers, pigments, and other ingredients if desired, to give a strong, shock-resistant body, as well understood in the plastics art. This body may also be a single piece of metal, e. g., die cast, or machined from bone or horn. 1

At the bottomof the slot ll there is provided spring I], one end of which extends into arecess l8 beneath an abutment 59 which is integral with the side portions l3 and M and the end portion [5. As exemplified, the cutting edge of the knife approaches the upper surface of this ledge when the blade is in closed position. The spring tends to diverge from the bottom of the slot so that its 3 upper sloping surface 2% presses against and is held down by the shank 2! of a blade 22 which is pivoted on a pin 23 extending through the side portions i3 and I4. The spring may be freely slid through the open end It of the slot on assembly, and so long as the blade is not in position the spring can be freely slid out of the slot through the open end 55; but, while the blade is in place, the spring is held in flexed condition so that its own spring pressure will prevent any accidental dislodgment thereof. This is due partly to the frictional pressure exerted upon the abutment of the spring which acts as a cam against the edge of the shank '2! on the blade. It will thus be seen that the spring is held in place only by its own flexed pressure upwardly on the ledge and the shank and downwardly on the bottom portion l2. This is true, as will be seen from Figures 2 and 3, for the closed and partially opened positions of the blade. In the open position, the corner 24 engages the end of the spring ll and drives it with high leverage by any force applied to the blade, back into position in the slot if it should work out slightly.

In the present instance transverse grooves 26 are molded into the sides near the ends thereof, so that these ends will give the appearance of bolsters. No other bolsters or tips are necessary if a hard tough plastic is used. With weaker materials, however, the body portion Illa may be reinforced by a bolster. In this case, the end is recessed as shown at 28 in Figure so as to receive ordinary metal bolsters 29 having holding tabs 39, 3|, and 32. The slot i la will receive the tabs 30 and 3i; and a supplemental slot portion 34 is shown formed in the bottom portion I211 to receive the tabs 32 of the front and back bolsters. Alternatively the lower tabs 32 may be integral to give a single U-shaped bolster, in which case the supplemental slot 34 is unnecessary.

The invention is admirably adapted for the provision of a multiple bladed knife also, with blades at both ends. One of the blades in such case serves to hold down one end of the spring, and the blade at the other end serving to hold down the other end of the spring.

One such knife is shown, for example, in Figure 6. An elongated body portion ifib has the slot I ib extending therethrough from end to end, and the spring i'ib supported against the bottom portion 122) within the slot. At one end there is provided a knife blade "32 pivoted at M, the shank 53 of which cams against spring Nb; and at the other end is a knife blade 45 pivoted at i! with its shank 46 camming against the other end of spring I lb. The shanks serve at all times to hold down their respective ends of the spring ill) in such flexed condition as to hold the blades in the closed, open or half open position and also to hold the spring against longitudinal displacement.

Although the simplicity of the structures shown in Figures 1-4 and 6 are very advantageous when strong materials are used, the invention also permits the use of weaker plastics or less sturdy constructions with sheet metal liners. This is shown for example, in Figure 7, wherein a channels'haped brass liner 5! provides reinforcement for the molded plastic or routed wood body lilo. By reason of the economies thus effected in the handle and spring, both in the economy of parts and in the avoidance of polishing operations on bolsters, backs and edges, the invention makes 4 possible the sale at very low price of knives with blades of highest quality.

While there are given above certain specific examples of this invention and its application in practical use and also certain modifications and alternatives, it should be understood that these are not intended to be exhaustive or to be limiting of the invention. On the contrary, these illustrations and the explanations herein are given in order to acquaint others skilled in the art with this invention and the principles thereof and a suitable manner of its application in practical use, so that others skilled in the art may be enabled to modify the invention and to adapt it and apply it in numerous forms, each as may be best suited to the requirement of aparticular use.

I claim:

1. A knife comprising a handle having a slot therein open at at ieast one end, said slot being defined by inner side walls and an inner bottom surface, a knife blade pivoted to the handle adjacent the open end for movement from a position between said inner side walls to an extended position, a spring wholly housed in said slot and extending longitudinally thereof with a surface in contact with the inner bottom surface of said handle, the bottom surface of said handle being flat and the contacting surface of said spring being longitudinally convexly curved for substantially the whole of its length so that the contact between said surfaces is tangential, said spring being longitudinally concavely curved in a central zone between the ends of its surface opposite to the convexly curved surface, and means presenting an overhanging surface spaced from but generally parallel to the inner bottom surface of said handle, said overhanging surface acting to urge the end of said spring remote from said blade toward said bottom surface of said handie, said blade having a cam portion engaging the other end of said spring.

2. A knife comprising a handle having a slot therein open at both ends, said slot being defined by inner side walls and an inner bottom surface, a pair of knife blades, one knife blade being pivoted to the handle adjacent each open end for movement from a position between said inner side walls to an extended position, a spring wholly housed in said slot and extending for substantially the full length thereof, said spring having a surface in contact with the inner bottom surface of said handle, the bottom surface of said handle being flat and the contacting surface of said spring being longitudinally convexly curved so that the contact between said surfaces is tangential, said spring being longitudinally convexly curved in a central zone between the ends of the surface opposite to the convexly curved surface, each of said blades having a cam portion engaging one end of said spring, said cam surfaces functioning to urge the ends of said spring toward said bottom surface of the handle.

A. EDWARD ALLEN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,043,438 Kallin Nov. 5, 1912 1,476,030 Doehler et al. 'Dec. 4, 1923 2,252,896 Mounts Aug. 19, 1941 

